Siew Foong Wong (Cloud4C Services)
As businesses emerge from a challenging 12-24 months, the need for digital transformation and competitive differentiation is coming into sharp focus.
With innovation high on the agenda – spearheaded by accelerated cloud migration projects – organisations are shifting gears and embracing change to meet new market demands post-pandemic. The Microsoft’s Asia Pacific Region Rising Star Partner of the Year in 2021 was awarded to Cloud4C.
“Digital transformation means different things to different organisations,” observed Siew Foong Wong, associate vice president of Channels and Alliances across ASEAN at Cloud4C Services.
Whether creating a digital twin or transforming processes with automation, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), Siew Foong acknowledged that in the enterprise, “no two projects are ever the same”.
“No matter how mature organisations think they are, groups and departments are still starving for more efficiencies and easier ways to get their work tasks completed each day,” Siew Foong acknowledged.
“A great starting point is to ask is, ‘how do we offer the best experiences to employees, customers and partners? 95 per cent of the time, that is where our journey with our customers starts.”
According to Siew Foong, a considered and strategic approach to digital transformation and cloud migration is required to maximise the potential of emerging technologies.
“For organisations that have tried to put everything in the cloud as fast as possible, those projects come to a screeching halt,” she cautioned. “Customers must answer key questions such as, which systems should we sunset? Which systems should we migrate? Where do we consolidate them?”
In response, and through leveraging widespread industry experience in leading digital transformation initiatives, Cloud4C offers businesses a cloud adoption blueprint to help craft a “pragmatic transformation” roadmap.
“Execution is arguably the riskiest part of digital transformation,” Siew Foong said. “Even the most enthusiastic and bought-in teams can lose momentum when practical delivery challenges threaten to derail a transformation project.
“We work to remove the risk from digital transformation initiatives right from the planning and execution phases, but most importantly by managing the improved IT landscape.”
In short, Siew Foong said Cloud4C helps identify the “stated and unstated” demands of customers, before tying technology changes with business outcomes through a commitment to “continuous optimisation” during modernisation projects.
The aim? To “de-risk” the entire transformation program to help customers focus solely on strategic business priorities, rather than IT challenges.
“Our unique positioning as a dynamic, innovative and hyper connected organisation is likely to mark new trajectories of growth and ethical profitability,” Siew Foong added.
“Resting on a team of talented people and our domain expertise, we have delivered on our financial commitments, introduced one-of-the-kind solutions and consistently transitioned our business model to cater to modern organisations.
“As we look to the future, we seek to operate with transparency, keeping our minds and hearts open with the conviction to drive our customers towards success. We are confident of emerging stronger than before and remain poised to unlock greater value for our stakeholders.”
Spearheading transformation with Microsoft
Singapore-based Cloud4C operates as an automation-driven and application-focused cloud managed service provider (MSP), serving more than 4000 enterprise customers across 52 markets.
The specialist partner is equipped with 25 Centres of Excellence and over 2000 skilled and certified cloud experts.
Leveraging expertise in managing mission-critical cloud workloads across public, private, hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments, the business houses more than 600 certified Microsoft Azure consultants, solution architects and engineers with 10 advanced specialisations.
“As Microsoft builds infrastructure to capitalise on burgeoning digital demands and enterprise customers embrace hybrid and multi-cloud functions, we will continue to play a key role in advancing our customers’ digital transformation journeys,” Siew Foong said.
“We anticipate a multi-fold expansion of the digital ecosystem, opening up new opportunities for us to thrive and succeed.”
As an Azure Expert Managed Services Partner, Cloud4C has certified cloud experts working towards stitching solutions for customers across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea markets.
“Asia Pacific is a strategic market and we have made several investments in our Microsoft practice, both in terms of head count as well as business investments,” Siew Foong explained. “We are hiring aggressively across ASEAN to improve our footprint per country.”
Going forward, plans are underway for Cloud4C to attain more advanced specialisations on Microsoft Azure, with a specific focus on cloud migration and assessment, plus data, security, AI and machine learning offerings.
“Microsoft’s strength lies in its speed of innovation,” Siew Foong added. “Cloud4C is a cloud native partner of Microsoft and for us, readiness is a strategic initiative. In this process, we align customer’s cloud computing strategies with business strategies.
“We wish to get our team certified on the new toolsets from Microsoft Azure and innovate for our customers. We are building our expertise on more enterprise applications to constantly add to our pool of applications and become a ‘one-stop-shop’ when managing hybrid cloud and multi-cloud set-ups.”
Highlighting how the ecosystem can support increased customer appetite for transformation, Vivek Puthucode – Chief Partner Officer at Microsoft Asia Pacific – outlines the path to partner success. To read – click here
